The miracle of Tullylease 40 years on from August 1981

One of the finest field’s ever assembled for a mile race, took to the starting line in the tiny village of Tullylease on the Cork -Limerick border two miles from the town of Dromcolloger. The line up included John Walker from new Zealand Olympic 1,500m champion at the Olympics in Montreal in 1976. World record holder for the mile and the first man in the world to run a mile under 4 minutes, 100 times. Eamon Coghlan world 5,000m champion in Helsinki in 1981 and 4th behind Walker in Montreal. He was well known as “Chairman of the Boards” for his exploits indoor which included a sub 4 minute mile the first over 40 athlete to achieve this. John Treacy silver medallist in the Marathon at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 and double world Cross country champion. John is now chairman of the sports council. Frank O’Mara twice world indoor champion and three time Olympian. Ray Flynn who still holds the Irish mile record of 3.49.77 set at the Bislett games, Dream Mile in Oslo, in July 1982, he ran 89 sub 4 minute miles. Ray is now a very well respected athletics agent. The filed was completed by Liam O’Brien who skills were honed by Fr Liam Kelleher in Midleton. Liam won 11 Senior National Steeplechase championships and reached the semi-final of the event at the 1984 Olympics. To give the background on how this great event happened it is necessary to look back a few years to the early career of Fr Liam.

Ordained in 1968

After studying at St Colman’s College in Fermoy and at St Patricks seminary in Carlow, he was ordained in his native Donoughmore on the 9th of June 1968. He went on loan to the Diocese of Cardiff and was stationed at Treforest Pontypridd, until he was recalled home in January 1970 and appointed chaplain to the Presentation Nuns in Mildeton. The story is told, during the first summer there, he met a Fr Brown who was home on holidays from Australia and he invited him to join him on a days fishing trip on Cork harbour. Fish were plentiful that day so on his way home he was passing the local council filed and saw a group of children at play. Loaded down with bag of fish,he decided to organize races for them. That resurrected his interest in the sport of athletics, which lay dormant since the Summer of his ordination, when he won the 100m at famous Donoughmore Open Sports. He decided to organize a series of track leagues and visited over 20 National Schools in East Cork. He offered a medal to every participant, if they attended 6 out of 8 of the events. He booked 2 buses from Barry’s in Cork. He travelled on one himself and made stops at the following schools, Ballintotis, Castlemartyr, Shanagarry, Ballycotton, Churchtown South, Ballcroneen, Whitegate, Cloyne and Saleen. He had no idea how many was on the bus with 4 packed into each seat. On leaving the bus he counted 142 and made sure that there was the same number going back. In all 900 children turned up they all got one race each. For the next 7 weeks with extra transport arranged, the mammoth task was completed. Fr Liam went back to every school and presented the medals and took pictures of every group which made their way into one of the first of his many subsequent publications. Suffice to say a new athletics dynasty was born, with the club achieving huge success at every level. Just an indication of achievements the first x country teams that travelled to the National championships, the athletes returned with 25 All-Ireland medals from Tuam and the following week 29 from Mountmellick. Things got even better for example the under 11,12,13, and 14 teams won National titles, with the “B” teams under 12 and 13 taking silver medals as well as gold. At school’s level the dominance continued with St Mary’s HS winning the Junior, Intermediate and Senior team titles. On one occasion the Juniors took 1st, 2nd,3rd, and 4th individual places a feat never achieved before or since. Tours

Four tours were undertaken, in 1972 a group of athletes 40 in all headed off for 10 days in conjunction with All-Ireland juvenile track championships in Strabane. The athletes stayed at St Eunan’s College in Letterkenny, Summerhill College in Sligo, and the African Mission College in Ballinafad. The total cost to each athletes for the 10 days was £6 and that was with the comfort of a CIE tour bus. Another group were taken to Crystal Palace in London for an athletics coaching course. The indoor complex there, with a 60m sprint track, gave way to another dream. After getting home, plans were soon unveiled for a huge sports hall 175’x75’ with an opening at the leading on to an extension, combined with hall there was an indoor straight of 110 meters one of the longest in the world. Another trip ended up in Louvain in Belgium where he took Liam O’Brien to an Olympic coaching course on the steeplechase, he received great help and support from world record holder and Olympic Steeplechase champion Gaston Roelants. The final trip from Midleton was undertaken in August 1977 after the National Senior championships where Midleton athletes won 5 gold medals. Midleton club were invited by Fr Denis O'Connell a native of Milford to take on a selection from his club in Glasgow, Colzium AC. The match ended in a draw. On the way home with 5 hours to spare to the ferry to Dublin, Fr Liam decided to visit the newly opened Liverpool cathedral. Caught in heavy traffic he went off the bus to investigate, Liverpool were playing the first game of the new season, just after winning the European Cup, so it was off to Anfield with his 4 companions. The team was laden with household names and a new addition, a certain Kenny Daglaish. The delighted group got back to the boat just in time after their Anfield experience.

Transfer to Tullylease September 1977

Transferred to Tullylease barely a month later, out of the blue Fr Liam got a letter from the bishop on a Monday morning, telling him he was being transferred to Tullylease in the parish of Milford and he was to the there for mass on the following Sunday, no Saturday evening masses then. Can you imagine the thoughts going through his mind having no idea even where the place was, and having to leave behind the athletics empire he had helped to build. So it is important to have that prelude to appreciate what happened in Tullylease and how the 400m track took shape and became a reality renowned the world over in the sport of Athletics.Tullylease was a small village with a school enrolment of 39 and it was soon planned to be reduced to nothing, with pupils set to be transferred to Freemount 3 miles at the Kanturk side of the parish. That was the first of his many “fights” to keep the school he went to the Dail and a meeting arranged by a family relative, a TD at the time, he came face to face with the then minister for Education, John Wilson and uttered that saying, that became part of folklore, he stamped his fist on the table stating ‘Our children will go to school in a cowhouse and will never leave Tullylease” The battle was won and the following week he got a letter from the then Taoiseach, Jack Lynch which he still has, stating the school in Tulllylease would remain open. There was a small hall in the village and he organised indoor training there, doing the exercises to music, which he had commenced in Midleton, long before Jayne Fonda came up with the idea, There were plenty roads to run on, but no athletes, after being introduced to Christy Brosnan a native of Meelin and a shopkeeper in Dromcollogher there was chink of light. Christy was giving a lot back to the sport he loved and he issued an invitation to the training sessions at Mark O’Shea’s field just back the road. Without out the huge numbers it was like the old days again with children willing to listen and learn. Training went well, but without being able to muster too many teams, due to lack of numbers, they created a sensation winning the first 4 races on the programme at the Munster x country championships, girls under 11 and 13, through Teresa Sweeney and Patricia Noonan and boys Mark Brosnan, Christy’s son and Ned O’Sullivan. Those successes set another thought in motion, there was no track for them to train. An opportunity arrived soon afterwards the land commission were dividing a farm and Fr Liam encouraged the local Community Council to purchase 5 acres, with a view to providing a sports field for the local GAA club and of course on the back of his mind the dream of a 400m all weather track. The cost of the land was easy enough to muster up £3,502. The creating of an all weather track, would demand something special. The field had a drop of 15 feet from top to bottom. On a visit to see a friend in hospital Fr Liam observed these huge machines moving soil, to prepare to the Wilton Shopping centre, he met the owner of the machinery and asked him could he level a field, after giving him an idea what was needed. As it happened there was a meeting of the Community Council arranged for the following night and he was invited him to come along. The meeting was very productive and agreed on a price of £9,000 for the leveling of the field, the work was to be completed in 10 days, but lasted well over 2 weeks, after a lot of rock was encountered, a blessing in disguise, the rock was broken up and used as base for the 400m track before the finer filling and green stone topping, was supplied by John A Wood. A huge fundraising campaign was undertaken to cover the cost. The Tullylease Maytime festival was a major source of income..An open air concert took place headlined by the Wolfe Tones with a young lady at the start of a glittering career Louise Morrissey, and compere was Billa Connell himself. A marquee was erected and the top showbands in the country drew capacity crowds. Fr Liam set the example by running 150 laps of the track non stop in a snowstorm, all of 37 miles supported by some of his budding proteges. Anyone who sponsored him for £5 got a ticket for world X Country and if they added another £5, the bus to the event at Limerick racecourse, which was won by John Treacy. That run raised a staggering £5,000 the track was completed and paid without a cent contribution from government funding or from any outside body as well. All was set for the grand initial track meet in May 1979. Star attraction was a close friend of Fr Liam, the great Steve Ovett who ran his first 5,000m every on the 7th of the 7th, 77, when he competed in Midleton and relegated John Treacy to 2nd place. The cast included Scottish stars Nat Muir and Frank Clement who were Olympic finalists in Montreal as well as Eamon Coghlan. The night before the event there was a deluge of rain and Sunday morning the track was flooded and rain was still falling, miraculously after the 10am mass presided over by Fr Liam, the rain ceased and the event went ahead with the support of a capacity audience, to avoid slow times on a saturated track the mile was changed to 1,000m and the 5,000m to 4,000m. The first race the 1OOm was won by Kathyn Johnson from nearby Dromcollogher who went on to represent Ireland in Hockey and not so long ago won a world cup hockey medal, with her country in the vets category. Her sister Barbara later represented Ireland in the 400m hurdles at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, Michael Kiernan won the men’s 100m and later went to become a star playing rugby for Ireland. Then the man who made it all possible, showed his mettle by running in the vets 800m finishing 2nd. Things did not work to plan in 1980 with Ovett unable to attend. On to August 1981 and all was set for a cracking sporting occasion, despite the fact that Limerick were playing in the All-Ireland Semi final a rarity at time, but things have changed for them now. One of the biggest crowds ever seen at an athletics event in Ireland, turned out to witness history being made. The breaking of the magical 4 minutes for the mile at this remote village seemed just a dream, but the dream turned to reality when Eamon Coghlan defeated his Olympic conqueror John Walker from New Zealand with Ray Flynn, John Treacy, Frank O’Mara and Liam O’Brien trailing in their wake. Everyone awaited with bated breath for the times to be announced. Over the loud speaker air waves it rang out Coghlan 3,57.8 and Walker 3,58.1 the sub 4 was achieved and the crowd went wild. A few years later, when John Walker was immortalised after becoming the first person on the planet to run 100 sub 4 minute miles, some statisticians had him pencilled in for 99, it took Eamon Coghlan to confirm his achievement prompting the Los Angeles Times to put a banner headline on its sport pages 'Tullylease the one that got away' It must be stated that this line up could never have materialized, but for the help and support of Michael O’Connell CEO at the time of Adidas and currently his regular golfing partner, he financed the entire project and it remained the biggest sponsorship deal ever undertaken by Adidas in Ireland

Transferred to Dromina

Sadly for Tullylease shortly after Fr Liam was transferred to Dromina and a few years later the track was removed to make way for a larger GAA pitch now the village is struggling to field a team. Dromina kept his commitment going and the Adidas Dromina 10, road race made its way on to the road race calendar. This race attracted the top road runners in the county with over 1,000 entries., with late Jerry Kiernan setting a 10 mile record time of 46.30. North Cork AC, came into being producing two Olympians from its membership, Barbara Johnson in the 400m Hurdles and Peter Maher in the Marathon and who later set a world best for 25k leaving the top Kenyan’s in his wake. Anita Philpott from Kanturk was the standout female and had stirring battles with a certain Sonia O’Sullivan, finishing ahead of her illustrious rival most of the time. Both got scholarships to the USA Sonia to Villanova and Anita to Providence College. Anita won the American Junior X country. Both came home injured from their lst year and were still selected to the European Junior championships in Birmingham in 1987. Fr Liam was manager of the team and was delighted that both travelled, Sonia was not recovered to make the starting line up. Anita not fully fit ran the 3,000m easily made the final and finished 4th behind subsequent World Champion Fernando Ribero of Portugal, unfortunately Anita had to retire with injuries and her last hurray was finishing in the final of the European 3,000m which Sonia won in Helsinki. Eight more athletes from their club took the scholarship trail to the USA.

Inch Killeagh

In 1988 Fr Liam was on the move again back to Inch in the parish of Killeagh and there he was instrumental in setting up Glenbower ac and within 2 years it became the top Juvenile club in Ireland in x country and track. From those squads including the Junior x Country team representing East Cork who won the team at the National championships 3 years in a row, five of them went on scholarship to Western Kentucky. Another finished up at Costal Carolina

Whitechurch

Whitechurch was his next port of call in 1993. National x country events were brought to the village. Then Ladies football took over. The girls in the school persuaded him to start ladies football. Sciath na scoil success came where a certain Valerie Mulcahy was the standout player. Club wise Rockban was established, again due to huge level of fitness, they won the Co A under 12 title moving on to under 14 and a few years later the Co Junior B title the following year the Co. Munster and All-Ireland Junior titles, the following year all the Intermediate titles. His native parish Donoughmore, put an end to that gallop by defeating Rockban in the Co Senior final. Cork, then came calling and he got involved in administration as PRO and then got involved helping with the fitness of the intermediate team with Charlie Mclaughlin as coach, the team won the All-Ireland title. Then came a move, long before other organisations cottoned on to the idea, between them they established a school of excellence for under 14’s and Summer camps. Gradually things started to improve Fr Liam, took over the management of the under 14 team again with Charlie as coach the first piece of silverware arrived in the shape of the Munster “B” title with just a point to spare against Tipperary.

Parish Priest in Grenagh

In 1999 Fr Liam was transferred to Grenagh as PP he contemplated retiringfrom football and agreed to stay on with the under 14’s, provided training was held in Grenagh, it proved a shrewd move, when his request was granted. This led to the emergence of what was subsequently known as the “Dream team” Brilliantly talented and superbly fit and skilled, when championship time came round in 2,00O they caused a sensation by winning their first game played in Grenagh by a staggering 8-34 to 0-0, against Tipperary, Limerick were toppled 3-20 to 0-0 up next were Clare and Cork conceded their first score a point, but scored 8-19, Waterford and Kerry were also comprehensively defeated. Outside of Munster Meath were defeated 6-11 to 0-3 and Cork triumphed in the All-Ireland final 6-12 to 1-4 against Mayo. Many of that team became household names in Football and Camogie for the next 20 years,. The squad included Briege Corkery, Brid Stack Geraldine O’Flynn, Norita Kelly, 10 year old Amanda Murphy who went on to win 4 under 14 All-Ireland titles 3 under 16, two Minor and Senior medals. In camogie Sile Burns, Catriona Foley, Elaine O’Riordan and Marie O'Neill, went on to win Senior Camogie All-Ireland titles as did Briege Corkery and Rena Buckley. The success at underage continued with 4 under 14 titles in a row 2,000-2,003 Three under 16 titles and two Minor titles, that’s 9 All-Ireland underage titles in 6 years, the rest is history, the forward thinking and the establishment of the school of excellence and Summer camps had the desired effect. Most moved on to Senior with the late Eamonn Ryan winning 11 Senior titles in 12 years.

Sabbatical in USA 2012 and then to Cobh in 2013

Before going to the USA on Sabbatical to Berkeley in California for a year, Fr Liam drifted in and out with various Cork teams and on return from a years sabbatical in the USA, he spent 2 weeks in the Hermitage hospital in Dublin and was diagnosed with the severest form of Rheumatoid arthritis, he was told he would never work again and he would be on medication for the rest of his life. He recovered by doubling up on his whole food nutrition and a recipe from a complimentary therapist from Dunleer in Co Louth, it did the trick. He arrived as a curate in Cobh in August 2013, he went back to Minor set up with John Cleary and Co, three National titles followed the 4 in a row bid just came up short, when Galway won by a single point. After 21 years involved with Cork it was his first experience losing an All-Ireland final with a staggering success rate of 20 All-Ireland wins. He did help the local club in Cobh to an under 14 Co title their ist at any level. Covid has put a huge damper on the older age groups and sadly many of them have drifted away. He still keeps his interest in athletics going with Ballymore-Cobh AC and one his star pupils in Rushbrooke NS who won Munster and All-Ireland medals for sprints and jumps, Timmy Wilk, starred for minors Cork at just 16. In the 4 matches he played and an All-Ireland medal is on the mantlepiece. Fr Liam predicted 3 years ago that he would be the first Polish boy on the Cork hurling team. Another pupil in the school Lilly, whose mother is Polish and she trains for athletics, has gone from 6th in Ireland to no 2 in tennis, since the start of the Summer. On the 21st of August she travelled to Poland with her family after she was invited to train with Polish national squad,and Fr Liam was invited along, so he missed the All-Ireland minor final.

Now retired

Now retired from parish duty, Fr Liam keeps occupied, he has live streamed mass daily from his home on Facebook. He scanned most of his many publications including 21 years of a running magazine he edited and produced, Marathon Magazine. He was a founding member of Peil, a National magazine on Ladies football, the Imokilly people for East Cork and Cobh news for the Great island until he suffered a heart attack 4 years ago but recovered fully . Now he contributes the Cobh news for the East Cork Free advertiser. He is the Cobh co-ordinator for Cobh App under the umbrella of Xplore and a growing number of towns in Cork, Kerry, Galway, Carlow etc are part of the group. A lifetime of commitment has its rewards and he told us the attendance at 8 Olympic Games, European Championships, world X Country Championships and many event leaves an abundance of happy memories. Being manager of the Irish team at the world championships in Stuttgart in Germany in 1993, was a huge honour, when Sonia O’Sullivan finished 2nd in the 1,500m and 4th in the 3,000m behind the subsequently disgraced Chinese, who eventually admitted to cheating by using drugs. Throw in the European Junior Championships in Birmingham in 1987 and the world junior championships in Sudbury in Canada in 1988, as manager and that was an indication of his standing in sport, all achieved without neglecting his priestly duties. It may be 40 years since that famous mile in Tullylease, but the memories live on. Earlier this year Peter Duhig an Englishman, was fascinated when he read the story in Pat Butcher’s best selling book The Perfect Distance, featuring the great Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe, which included 6 pages on the relationship Fr Liam struck up with Steve. Peter came to Ireland to visit Tullylease, about 15 years ago and said there was a book to be written on it. He accomplished it during Covid, although now living in Spain he published the book in January of this year with the title ‘Tullylease when Irish eyes are mileing” It has been reprinted a number of times and sold out on Amazon, is it any wonder?

Interview with Fr Liam Kelleher published in this week's Vale Star newspaper.

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